FORT HOOD – The case of Maj. Nidal Hasan goes before a new military judge who could decide to revisit every ruling her predecessor made against the man charged in the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood.

Relatives of one person killed don't want that to happen. They've already waited more than three years for the trial to begin.

"I expected a delay, certainly, because the judge is going to have to review the case, she's going to have to figure out if there's anything she wants to address," said Keely Vanacker, a Kerrville high school counselor whose father, retired Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Cahill, was killed trying to stop the shooting.

"I just hope it's not a complete start-over. I hope it is not going to be a complete re-do of every decision that's been made."

Col. Tara Abbey Osborn is scheduled on Tuesday to preside over a reset of the proceedings against Hasan, accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32.

The reset was ordered Dec. 3 by a military appeals court that removed the first trial judge, Col. Gregory Gross, saying he had displayed an "appearance of bias."

Aggressive defense

The hearing could lead the court to revisit every decision Gross made over 17 months of hearings. No one can say how just long that would take.

A judge who began her military career in 1988, Osborn is certain to get pushed back by a defense team that convinced the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to remove Gross from the case, arguing that he was biased against their client.

They also successfully battled his order to force Hasan to shave a beard he grew last summer in violation of Army regulations. In deciding that Gross had to go, the appeals court didn't act on his insistence that Hasan lose the beard.

All eyes will be on Osborn to see if she, too, demands that he shave, as well as whether she erases every decision Gross made since arraigning Hasan on July 20, 2011. Since then, he has ruled on motions in at least 17 hearings.

"I think she's got some challenges initially. My guess is the defense is going to request reconsideration on a lot of the motions that were decided by Gross, and I don't know exactly how she'll handle that," said South Texas College of Law professor Geoffrey Corn, a retired Army lawyer.

'Shooting from the hip'

Cahill's widow is frustrated by the long wait.

"I am worried it will take time," Joleen Cahill said. "However, if you have a very disciplined, efficient judge, it won't take that long. Judges can push the system and this new judge is going to have to push the system."

Neither the defense nor prosecutors would comment.

Colorado defense attorney Frank Spinner said Osborn probably won't review every motion. He said two unknowns could complicate the case - the possibility transcripts of those hearings haven't been made and will be required before she presses on, and the specter of bias in some of Gross's rulings.

"As I read (the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces') opinion ... the relationship between Judge Gross and the defense had soured at some point, and so I don't know how the defense is going to deal with that," said Spinner, who has practiced before the court for the past 25 years.

Hasan's trial might start next spring or summer.

Spinner, who worked with Hasan's lead attorney, Col. Kris Poppe, in a past capital murder case, said the presence of a new judge complicates any prediction.

"This is new territory," he said, "so I'm just shooting from the hip on six months."